Young grizzlies bears are expanding the range of the population in northcentral Montana.
Wochit

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday published draft habitat criteria for the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) grizzly bear.

The NCDE region encompasses Glacier National Park, the Rocky Mountain Front west of Great Falls and other parts of northwestern and northcentral Montana.

NCDE grizzly bears are listed as threatened.

A 1993 Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan identified distinct recovery zones, and unique recovery criteria for six different grizzly bear populations, including the NCDE.

It outlined guidance on methods to minimize threats to grizzly bears, and demographic criteria to measure if recovery has been achieved.

That plan did not have habitat criteria in it and the FWS was challenged on that issue in court in 1997, said Hilary Cooley, the FWS' grizzly bear recovery coordinator.

A settlement was reached, and the agency agreed to include the habitat criteria in the plan before proposing to remove federal protections from grizzly bears, Cooley said.

The draft Supplement to the Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan: Habitat-Based Recovery Criteria for the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem was released Monday.

It contains the habitat criteria.

The public has until Jan. 26 to comment.

None of the habitat criteria contained in the supplement will be a surprise to anybody, Cooley said.

"The forests have been operating under these conditions and have inserted some of these draft criteria into their management," Cooley said.

A few steps remain to be completed in grizzly bear recovery before the FWS makes a decision whether to delist grizzly bears, Cooley said.

One is completing a conservation strategy, Cooley said.

It is possible a delisting rule could be proposed near the end of 2018, Colley said.

The population of grizzly bears in the NCDE is now about 1,000 bears.

The FWS is seeking information from state, tribal, and federal partners, the scientific community, non-governmental organizations and members of the public on the proposed habitat criteria to ensure that the agency is using the best available science to recover the NCDE grizzly bear, the agency announced.